Saturday, May 25, 2013

Venting on Seanan McGurie's book "Ashes Of Honor"



A bit of venting here this time at one of my favorite writers.

The other day I was thinking of a certain scene in what I think was one of Seanan's books.  I was explaining the use of the five human senses to another writer and how Seanan handled the sense of taste in that scene. I find that one hard to figure out in most cases. While reading Seanan's book I noticed how she used it so I described to this writer how Seanan put it in.

However that got my mind on Seanan and her last book. That reminded me of something that happened in "Ashes Of Honor" that did not sit well with me.

Now I am going to be very general with my comments here because I don't want to have this be a major spoiler so they may not make as much sense as I want them to make. However if you read the book I believe you will understand what I am referring to.


In Ashes, Seanan puts in a very minor character, not at all unusual or bad, but she does something with this one that isn't good. At least for me. The character does something to help--I won't go into details--but something bad happens to them.  Again not totally unusual and even not necessarily bad. However in this case it almost seems like Seanan forgets about that character.  Daye, the MC of the book, spares that character a thought but it seems added on and incomplete.

Bad things have happened to other minor characters, in various books, even characters that help the MC but as I said this it stuck me wrong and again as I said it feels incomplete like Seanan forgot and had to go back and quickly add something.  This person is a hero and heroes should not be forgotten.

Of course it's possible that it could be fixed in the next book, I shall see if so.  

Even with all this said, I am going to keep reading the Daye books, Seanan is still a very good storyteller--even if this was a mistake, and I will keep recommending her.


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